Fiscal-Cliff Negotiations

Republicans had better wake up and realize that their negotiations with the White House aren’t so much about how to avoid the looming “fiscal cliff” as they are about President Obama’s attempt to cement his historical legacy as a great liberal hero by forcing them to repudiate their anti-tax pledges.

On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner presented the White House’s position on averting the fiscal cliff. It called for $1.6 trillion in higher taxes, a one-year postponement of spending cuts on defense and domestic programs, a brand-new stimulus program totaling $50 billion, and unspecified savings of $400 billion in Medicare and other entitlement programs. Social Security is off the table. Five major tax hikes already set to kick in on January 1 — taxes on everything from flexible savings accounts to medical devices — would become permanent. Even the New York Times noted that the proposal is “loaded with Democratic priorities and short on detailed spending cuts” and goes way beyond the “balanced” approach President Obama advocated during the campaign.

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/334607/fiscal-cliff-negotiations-john-fund